Travel Challenges

My first day started really slow that I began drinking alcohol by the struck of 5:00 PM and ended at 2:00 AM. I could only blame myself and whole stretch of bars offering happy hour. In between I listened to a Filipino and a French national argue about Filipino and Thai food. I met Lukas, a German having his internship in the Philippines, and bought him a drink so we could both loosen up and dance like odd fishes out of the sea. We practically embarrassed ourselves with our dance moves.

After several days I transferred to a hostel, in a dorm room where everyone else is a stranger. There I met three Chinese girls and asked them “how do you find Frendz?” I was referring to the name of the hostel. One of them answered “you just talk to people and they will talk to you.” I wanted to laugh my heart out. She must have thought that I was a big loner who had no friends and had to ask how to find them. Too bad that my first night there was their last.

Sara, the Swedish girl who stayed on the first floor of the female's dorm always had a “Crime and Punishment” book with her. We often had breakfast together and she is often surprised how Filipinos could eat a whole meal in the morning, while most people she knows only eat oats, fruits and milk.

It was during Good Friday when we finally bonded over tongits (a Filipino card game) and booze. My two other friends who were staying at Frendz taught Sara and I how to play the game. She taught us “Livet ar bra!” which is the Swedish expression for “live the life!” and we taught her “Mabuhay!” its closest Filipino equivalent. For the next few days we kept on saying those phrases.

This is how I want to remember everything – promising. Everything in the island promised crazy spontaneity; strong bond with strangers we may never meet again; allure of falling in love again; and the possibility of being that stranger in a foreign land where everything is everything but usual.